TheFuzzy wrote:
Folks,
I still like kneading bread. Why are people so opposed to it?
I think some are just not as into kneading as those of us who also spend time wedging clay. It is an acquired skill and potters come to bread with the aptitude and similar experience there and we usually love the "mindless but fruitful" rhythmic activity of kneading both materials. I have had inexperienced home bakers tell me kneading is intimidating - I never found it that at all, I think because I wedged before I kneaded.
Still, the no-knead approach is great too because it offers less structured steps to a final product, even a more flexible timetable for bread and a different path into sourdough/aged biga rather than a straight forward plain loaf. For me, I love the technique of turning gently instead of kneading strongly and feeling the inflation in that very tender dough.
So I like both and I can see why some lean more to no-knead. For me, it's a great big world of dough and approaches, the more, the merrier.